If you lived here in the late 1980s and early 1990s, you’ll remember that Dallas was on the ropes. Big time.

Real estate and banking had cratered. Main Street had dozens of shuttered businesses. Dallas was being called the hole in the regional doughnut, a less than flattering comparison to Detroit, and an acknowledgement that the tax and job base had exited to northern suburbs.

Those suburbs were winning a dog-eat-dog battle with Dallas, attracting businesses with the promise of land and tax breaks.